Death of a Playwright is a Play within a Play on Multiple Planes of Existence with ghosts and maybe even God? Quimera Theatre presents the premiere of Death of a Playwright the new play by Matthew Willis.
Now I will be honest with you – when I see a write up that offers the promise of a play within a play about a theatre production, filled with inside jokes about theatre, I usually run for the hills…and I am a theatre person. Thus when I walked into Studio 16 my expectations were quite low and I...
The title of this play means truth in Latin. Written and performed by Sara Vickruck, the truth is that I thought this was an extraordinary creative work by a young artist. Vickruck trained at Grant MacEwan in Edmonton, AB which is where this play was premiered last summer at the Edmonton Fringe to excellent reviews. The play is a collection of monologues featuring very different characters and their daily heroics. Each one has a story to tell and needs their voice to be heard.
In a series of dramatic monologues, we meet seven individuals who reach crossroads in their...
Vangroovy is a Theatre Ocean Production written and directed by Christopher Ross-Ewart. The show got off to a bit of a rough start. Our Box Office manager playfully got upset at the crowd for not reacting during the preshow speech. We weren't exactly brimming with energy. Unfortunately the show didn't help get us out of our stupor.
Vangroovy is about Vancouver. And what a terrible place is it to live. It focuses mainly on how screwed we all are because of the pipeline and global warming and how we are all self obsessed zombies who are incapable of creating...
I am not sure if this was intended but in light of the recent controversy regarding the upcoming Olympics in Sochi, Leaping Thespians' production of The Troll and the Three Lesbians Gruff could be considered somewhat timely. According to the company's press package, trolls derive their greatest satisfaction from preventing bridge crossings, creating the obstacle that blocks the span created to overcome another obstacle. The trolls' disruptions include brute force and also sophisticated magic spells such as making people hard-hearted to each other.
Troll has taken over a peaceful village which has survived and thrived in love for many years,...
Genre Definition = Funny · Warm and Fuzzy · In Your Face
Ever heard the following expression: “In trying to please everyone you will please no one"? It applies as much to theatre as it does to life in general. The Epitome of Regret has a lot of potential, but it really does need to figure out what it is. My experience was something like a cross between sketch comedy, satire musical and an off-beat love story, all of which could have been great, but in the confusion it ended up missing all the marks and not being much of anything. All I took away from it were a few clever lines,...
If this was the first time I was learning about Jack the Ripper and if the existence of serial killers wasn’t part of my social consciousness, I may have had a different experience of this play.
But we all know the story. Whitechapel Productions’ rendition may have been historically accurate, but it was also dry and largely lifeless. There is so much potential to explore the full range of human experience in this mysterious tale and perhaps my expectations were high but all I saw was a bunch of safe choices on that stage. Even the murder scenes...
In Michael Beamish's Mac Attack, born-again Christian Darrel travels to the remote bomb shelter his best friend Teevo calls home with the intent of asking him to be his best man. It soon becomes clear that Teevo has long been an athiest and is not at all happy to see his best friend marry "some church bimbo you hardly know".
A battle of wits ensues, escalates and eventually reaches the point where Teevo locks Darrel inside the bomb shelter with him with no means of escape. Teevo reveals that he has been preparing this bomb shelter for some time,...
Glowing explores adoption, infertility, morning sickness and the sudden desire for a child at 40. When I attended, there were around 60 people in the house. These people sprung to their feet as soon as the show finished showering Mary-Jo Dionne and her repressed subconscious, Andrea Polz, with applause. I can see why they may have liked it. The show is well written, emotional, authentic, delivered with expert timing and funny. I heard some people say it was the best show they've seen so far.
Alas it was not for me. I have an abnormal knowledge of adoption...
Genre Description = Funny · Warm and Fuzzy · Intimate
Although Colin Thomas in Georgia Straight faulted this show, with all due respect, I disagree. Jones, an Englishman and Cambridge graduate (as he points out three times), tells us how, a healthy young man of 30, he had heart failure - not heart disease - caused, he discovers, by a puzzlingly enlarged heart (so a pun on 'big heart').
On the screen before the start: "Has caused fainting: I'll warn you of squeamish bits," which he does twice, though no-one looked anywhere near fainting. He records, in a linear and sometimes emotional way, his...
What do you do when your sister goes to a psychic to get a reading for herself and the psychic brings forth from the great beyond YOUR future mother-in-law? Why go on an epic quest to meet her yourself of course! I mean you'd be pretty jealous of your sister for meeting your future mother-in-law first.
Tara Travis has met, befriended, and is finally marrying the man of her dreams...literally...I mean she literally dreamed of this guy! She always knew his name would be Jim, and of course she wants to meet his family, but, as his mother...
